Class IT, Ever-Changing

As I progressed through primary school in the late 90s, I experienced first-hand the evolution of computing devices for productivity and education. The classroom tech boom meant changes such as the swapping of paper registers for an Excel spreadsheet, the mandatory pupil email account and the replacement of traditional boards with PC powered Interactive Whiteboards. I saw these early additions to the classroom bring many frustrations to teachers and do very little to improve the learning experience for students.

Through senior school, the introduction of online portals for the setting of homework tasks became common place, with my school populating entire classrooms with a computer for every student and (virtually) unlimited internet connectivity. Since I left school, the post-pc era (the trend of decreasing sales in traditional computers in favour of portable devices) started in full swing with Apple reporting iPad education sales of over one billion dollars in 2013 and later with the growth of other hardware with the research firm Gartner reporting 72% of 2014 Chromebook sales being made in the Education sector. This means that the classroom now has a multitude of devices with various screen sizes and capabilities creating new challenges in producing software and content that is fit for purpose and usable on all of these devices.

This is a challenge that Fuel addresses by considering responsive web design and development in every project, making sure that all devices always display content effectively, making sure your development investment now keeps those all-important teaching resources ready for the devices and pupils of tomorrow.